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Four UN military observers freed

    ABIDJAN

    Sierra Leonean Army (SLA) rebels freed four more hostages late on Monday and there were hopes that the remaining captives would be released on Tuesday, according to news organisations and sources in Freetown.

    "Theoretically the rest are being released today," a humanitarian source in the Sierra Leone capital told IRIN on Tuesday.

    The four UN military observers were released as night was falling and it was probably considered too late to release any more that same evening, according to a BBC correspondent in Freetown.

    The hostage-takers are members of the former Sierra Leone Army (ex-SLA) which took to the bush when ECOMOG dislodged the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) junta in February 1998 and reinstated President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, whom the AFRC overthrew in May 1997.

    The captives are being held in a remote camp about 70 km east of Freetown. An ECOWAS Peace Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) spokesman in the Sierra Leone capital told IRIN on Tuesday that "negotiations to secure their release are continuing at the highest level".

    The exact number of captives was still unclear. Reports from Freetown said the ex-SLA were holding a UN military observer and about a dozen Nigerian ECOMOG soldiers, but the ECOMOG source said he was unable to confirm these numbers.

    The hostages were taken on 4 August when a UN-led team escorted by ECOMOG soldiers went to the area to pick up over 100 abducted children whom the rebels had promised to release.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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